Mike Shadrack calls this (and below) his “Octopus’s Garden in the
Shade,” but he also refers to it as using hostas as alpines. Neither of these playful descriptions is quite correct—there’s no octopus and Shadrack lives perched above a
creek, not on a mountaintop.

All the same, I am intrigued by his treatment of miniature
hostas. Mini hostas are all the rage now, in case you hadn’t heard. It’s the
opposite of how we grow them on my street—which is thick, gigantic, and tightly
planted. Shadrack, however, is a hosta specialist who has written several authoritative books on the topic. We visited his creekside garden south
of Buffalo last weekend—a first for everyone, including me.

Now, I do like hostas. I have to; I have dry shade and heavy
clay soil. But it’s hard to get really excited about them the way I would about
hellebores, erythronium, actaea, or other plants that might take the same
conditions, not to mention plants I can’t grow at all like delphinium, poppies,
and lupines. So far, I have been using hostas in thick profusion of much the
same varieties—usually sieboldiana and its hybrids. But what if I created a
rock garden in the shade like Mike? (What if, indeed. This is what the phrase
“Don’t try this at home” was created for.)

All I need is for someone to get me excited about
impatiens and I’ll never say an unkind word about my maple trees again.

19 responses to “Excited about hostas? It’s possible.”

The problem I found with the minature hostas is that since they are so small any nocturnal visits by hungry slugs usually means it is history. Where as the bigger ones can take some munching and not disapear. Just my experience.

I have two largish Norway Maples on my front lawn. I would love to create a garden under them, but I’m not sure I could handle all the seedlings that they create. Any ideas? The mini hostas are very cute, but unless you get up close and personal with them they are lost. For now I admire them in other people’s gardens.

Excellent that you all are excited about mini hostas… yes they are best in raised beds (Mike’s rockery) or containers where you can see them better and they can be appreciated for themselves. Kathy Shadrack

I gotta add another comment. I love big hostas. Big leathery leaves. Plants big enough to swallow a small child, or at the very least a small dog. Plants that are so big they looke fake, like they came out of a Johnny Weismuiller Tarzan movie. It is as close to the tropical look as I can get. Which is why I have a Sum and Substance, Big Daddy, Blue Angel, Komodo Dragon, Titantic. (I also have itty bitty Blue Mouse Ears and the Edger series for contrast.)

Hostas, the bigger the better! What are you supposed to do with those twee little ones? I am too old to get down to eye level with them, not even in a raised bed. I love Sum and Substance, Frances Williams, Blue Angel — they are handsome, they hold their place in the shady border with strength and presence, and I wouldn’t be without them. That said, they can be bullies though — I have a Blue Angel and a Frances Williams that have moved in on a young camellia and are pushing it out of their way. Time to get out the axe and do a little dividing when fall comes.

In my shade garden I have a variety of Hostas,large and medium sized.I just rescued a mini Hosta from the **** slugs.It looks beautiful now in a hypertufa container,all elevated to specialdom.(is that a word?) And, it became visible in all that beautiful greenery.

My client said she didn’t want any more hostas b/c she already had both kinds: green and white.
I love Hosta and at one time I had 83 varieties (and NOT ONE mini), but in my Atlanta garden their fleshy crowns are merely delicacies for the blasted pine voles. I haven’t dug holes and installed wire planting cages.

Living in uber-hot Oklahoma, I am not the biggest hosta fan (although some fantastic gardeners here grow them with aplomb), but he may have me with the miniatures. I like anything I can stick in a container where I can see it up close. I kept thinking of them beneath containerized Japanese maples on my back deck. Still thinking, but his garden was splendid as was his wife’s?~~Dee